Topic: Human-Centered Design
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Helping Policy Makers Put People First: A Step-by-Step Tool for User-Centered Policy Making
Teams crafting policy inside and outside government can use the assessment to center their policy-making activities around those most impacted by their proposed programs and policy ideas.
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Discovery Sprint Guide
This guide explains the U.S. Digital Service’s “discovery sprint,” a process by which teams can quickly build a common understanding of the status of complex organization, system, or service.
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COVID-19 Exposes How Many Unemployment Websites Are Truly Terrible
This HuffPost article investigates the widespread failures of state unemployment websites during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting outdated technology, accessibility issues, and the human impact of these systemic breakdowns.
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After the toolkit: anticipatory logics and the future of government
This article explores how anticipatory logics—drawing from foresight, futures thinking, and design—are shaping the future of government by creating space for innovative policy approaches, public participation, and proactive governance.
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Advocacy in the Dark: A Pennsylvania Case Study on Advocating to Improve Technology that Drives Eligibility Decisions
Technology that automates different processes can save time for caseworkers and constituents, but it can also significantly reduce the transparency of government operations. This paper describes how Pennsylvania advocates addressed the low rate of automated Medicaid renewals.
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Administrative Burden: Policymaking by Other Means: Professor Don Moynihan
Professor Don Moynihan discusses how administrative burden is an effective tool to make it difficult for people to access certain types of benefits, noting that this is particularly harmful to communities of color.
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8 Tips for Governments to Mitigate Call Center Volume
This article describes tangible steps state governments can take to manage call volume.
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3 Ways to Get Benefits to the Families that Need Them
In a time of crisis, behavioral science offers insights into how to reduce the paperwork and other administrative burdens that prevent people from taking advantage of crucial support services.
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Why Californians need food assistance: The stories behind the numbers
Californians who receive food assistance come from all backgrounds, but many share a similar story: they were barely getting by financially when they were tipped into crisis by an unexpected expense or loss of income. This site shares their stories.
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UX research during crisis: understanding rapidly evolving user needs to inform responsive design
Important considerations for understanding user needs to inform responsive design in rapidly changing contexts are discussed, including how context, threat perception, decision-making, and crisis affects disaster management and UX research.
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The Time Tax: Why is so much American bureaucracy left to average citizens?
Article describing the “time tax,” the costs to people applying or benefits in terms of spending substantial amounts of time navigating user-unfriendly interfaces. The article describes the necessity of simplifying safety-net programs and cross-coordinating across various social service programs.
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States Can Make Applications More Accessible During COVID-19 Crisis
This blog post discusses strategies that states can implement to make public assistance applications more accessible during the COVID-19 crisis, emphasizing the importance of flexibility in application processes to accommodate increased demand and social distancing measures.